October 22, 2025 • 59 mins
What happens when a horror host who fakes it on TV has to face the real thing? We dive into Fright Night with fresh eyes and fond memories, pulling apart the clever ways Tom Holland honors classic monsters while delivering real tension, sly humor, and unforgettable practical effects. From the quick-hit premise—a teen discovers his neighbor is a vampire and no one believes him—to the character arcs that give the story heart, we unpack why this 1985 cult favorite still plays as a legit thriller, not just a nostalgia piece.
We get hands-on with the craft: fog that moves like a character, first-person roof glides, and the melt-and-dust spectacle of a ghoul’s demise. A retractable pencil gag sells a painful stake, while a wolf-to-boy transformation lands with surprising emotion. We explore Peter Vincent’s journey from on-air pretender to true believer, the way faith powers a cross, and how a pocket mirror quietly flips the story’s stakes. Jerry Dandridge’s charisma takes center stage too—sleek, seductive, and strategic—with a fruit-bat palate-cleansing habit that turns background business into worldbuilding.
Along the way, we spotlight iconic scenes: the window fang reveal, the nightclub seduction with a chilling mirror absence, and a basement showdown where sunlight becomes a weapon. We talk casting chemistry—Roddy McDowall’s gravitas, Chris Sarandon’s range, William Ragsdale’s anxious drive—plus the synth-forward score that nails the era even as the theme song swings for radio and misses. We also touch on sequels, the modern remake, and whether Fright Night still earns a spot on your October list.
If you love practical effects, classic vampire lore with a modern pulse, and character arcs that earn their hero moments, press play and join the conversation. Then tell us your standout scene and your stake rating out of ten. Subscribe, share with a fellow horror fan, and leave a review to help more people find the show.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joe (00:00):
Uh what did you call it?
Com composting?
Com compositing.
Yeah, excuse me.
Composting is what they weredoing with the bodies.
Dylan (00:43):
The movie podcast, where every movie is a premiere.
Joe (00:46):
It's spooky season, and this week we're dusting off one
of the best vampire horrorcomedies the 80s ever gave us.
Fright Night.
Dylan (00:56):
This week's movie, Fright Night, came out in 1985, and it
is rated R.
It's got blood, fangs, nudity,and 80s hair product that may
disturb some viewers.
So listener discretion isadvised.
Joe (01:08):
It's partly responsible for the hole in the ozone layer.
Dylan (01:15):
So going into it, I totally thought that it was
going to be more cheesy than itwas.
Joe (01:22):
Yeah.
Dylan (01:23):
Like honestly, I I quite enjoyed it actually.
Yeah.
Joe (01:29):
Yeah, I think I think it probably gets a bad rap because
it's you know it's a horrormovie, it's 80s.
Right.
Um, you know, there's there'svery few in that genre that kind
of stand the test of time oreven stick out from the rest
because they all kind of getthat same, you know, uh cliche
(01:51):
kind of stuff going on.
Dylan (01:52):
But yeah, because it's super easy to really just put
that into a box and be like, ohyeah, this is you know the the
cheesy 80s, you know, this isthe cheesy 80s box.
We're going to take it out andpull something.
Oh, yeah, super cheesy.
Yeah.
Yeah, not this one, really.
Joe (02:11):
So um it was written and directed by Tom Holland uh
before Child's Play.
We were just talking aboutChild's Play and uh the My Buddy
doll and turns into the goodguy doll and goes after people,
and that's that's a whole maybewe'll do an episode.
Dylan (02:28):
Yeah, I I have not seen that one.
Joe (02:30):
Yeah.
So Tom Holland wanted to bringback the classic horror genre in
a new way.
Um movies, you know, as we weretalking, movies at that time in
the genre of classic horror oreven the classic monsters were
generally campy and comedy.
Um shortly after that.
Um Jim Carrey did one of hisfirst movies called Once Bitten,
(02:52):
and that was just a camp festof comedy.
Oh yeah.
Dylan (02:57):
Well, and I feel like you kind of he definitely
referenced that in the movietoo, like with the with the TV
rolling and stuff of like thethe big cheese moments.
Joe (03:08):
Yeah, Peter Vincent and showing clips from the horror
genre, and then even him saying,like, you know, kids are not
wanting to watch these anymore.
Right.
Yeah.
So he wanted to do he wanted totake kind of the idea of the
boy who cried wolf and meet itwith vampires.
And so you kind of have thethat main kind of story arc
(03:33):
throughout is nobody believeshim.
Dylan (03:35):
Right.
That was definitely I didn'trealize okay.
I didn't realize there was kindof following the the boy who
cried wolf trope, but itdefinitely played that off
really well.
Right.
So quick plot rundown ateenager discovers his new next
door neighbor is a vampire, andnobody believes him.
So he turns to a washed uphorror host for help.
Joe (03:58):
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Dylan (04:02):
Yeah, watching it, there was a lot of decent jump scares.
I was I was really kind ofimpressed.
I thought the only one thatlike that got me that I was mad
about is the is the one where Ialso scared your cat.
(04:23):
Yeah.
She jumped up.
She did.
Um but it's the scene where Edis running away from Peter down
the alley, and Ed is waiting forhim to like come through the
the smoke, fog, whatever it was.
(04:43):
Oh.
And like it was really cool theway they set it up because you
could see the fog like comingcloser and filling the alley,
and then like it retreats, andyou're like waiting for him to
like kind of appear through thefog of just standing there.
Right.
And then he's not, and you'relike, oh, maybe you know, what
(05:08):
did he go after the other twonow?
Yeah.
But then he comes, stands, youknow, steps out of the side from
behind him.
Joe (05:16):
Yeah, from behind him.
Dylan (05:17):
And what made me mad was the symbols.
Oh the symbol clash.
Okay.
Like, I wouldn't have jumped,but it was just like just the
loud of the symbols.
Joe (05:29):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of cool becausethe the fog is a character in
the movie, and they use the fogto be him to move around.
It's kind of like it's kind oflike that Jaws thing, you know.
And even when uh he flies over,you know, it's just the camera,
it's just like a right, youknow, so there's there's a lot
(05:49):
of cool stuff that they use, youknow, like that.
Dylan (05:52):
Yeah, and that's definitely a note that I wrote
down was that I loved that itwent from the shot from up on
the roof and like it switchedinto a first-person view of him
then like going down the roofline because as he was moving
(06:15):
down the roof and you could hearhis footsteps.
At first I was like annoyedbecause I thought I was like,
did they not edit it out fromthe cameraman like walking down
it?
Yeah, and then it like clicked.
I was like, oh, okay, no,that's you know, we have
switched perspectives now,right?
(06:36):
So yeah, I was like, I waslike, applause on that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Joe (06:41):
Yeah.
For me, nostalgia uh kind ofgoes back to I didn't check the
month, but I think this was donein '85.
So I might have been eitherfive or six.
Yeah.
And my aunt uh who used towatch me and my brother, um,
took us to see this.
Dylan (07:01):
What?
Joe (07:01):
So I'm five or six in the theater watching this, and my
brother is just like having thetime of his life.
Dylan (07:11):
Um and so I I I assume he's older than you then.
Joe (07:15):
Yeah, he's so he's like maybe three years older.
Dylan (07:18):
Okay.
Joe (07:19):
Yeah.
So um I think it was prettymuch at the part at the end
where you know everything's justgoing awry, and you know, it's
just it's the battle.
It's the darkest hour.
Yeah.
And and you know, girlfriendcomes out with, you know, shark
teeth and all that.
And I'm just crying like ababy, because I was.
(07:42):
So I'm crying.
We're in the back of thetheater.
There is a layer of curtainsbehind the behind us.
And my brother, I don't Ididn't even notice he was gone.
He jumps out from behind thecurtains and discard me for
(08:04):
life.
Oh man.
It was just like, oh, so yeah,this was one that I saw in the
theaters that I didn't like fora while, but then I went back
and watched it, and I was like,okay, it wasn't that as bad as I
thought, you know.
And I I've come to kind of, youknow, kind of love this movie
more because of that, you know.
Dylan (08:24):
Yeah, so how would you say that it really compares to
more of the modern horrormovies?
Joe (08:32):
Yeah, I think I mean a lot of these movies just kind of,
you know, what do they say, walkso the other ones could run,
you know?
Yeah.
And I I think it was just oneof those because um you know,
you see modern horror movies andit just gets more complex,
whether it's the story or theswitches of you know how things
(08:55):
are changing in the story.
Um, is this is this person themurderer, and then you find out
it's not, and it's actually thisperson, or just all that kind
of stuff.
And um, you know, there there'sthere are a lot of vampire
movies after that did, you know,that took different avenues and
(09:17):
took different directions andthings like that.
And I think this one really,you know, because they were just
trying to bring back thatgenre, just changed the idea
overall of what a vampire waslike, you know, like this guy's
like super cool, like you wantto hang out with him, he's like
super fashionable for the time,you know.
Dylan (09:38):
I mean, he's he definitely they definitely tried
to give him kind of more ofthat sexy vibe.
Joe (09:42):
Yeah, exactly.
So you you don't really thinkof vampires that way
necessarily, right?
And it and it is a lot of theaw, aw, you know, that kind of
accent.
Dylan (09:55):
And which they did throw in a couple times, yeah.
Joe (09:58):
And I think he he like the way he did it though, was a
little more like care uh acaricature of just because he
was taunting Peter Vincent attimes.
Dylan (10:09):
Yeah.
Yeah, something that I enjoyedabout the movie is how much it
was able to how Fright Knightwas able to really kind of walk
the tightrope between being thethe legit vampire thriller and
more of the parody.
Joe (10:29):
Right.
Um yeah, and I I think thatgoes back to Tom Holland and
wanting to bring back a legit,you know, genre to uphold the
classic monsters, you know.
Um you know, like you havethose universal monsters and and
he really wanted to hold thatup, so he kind of you know
(10:52):
skirted the line on not andtrying not to be campy and
trying to be a little more likecomedy was there because like
there's just good times wheneither it's evil or you know,
yeah, other people are you know,they're high they're in high
school, so there there is athread of that comedy that's
already there with uh hormonesand all that kind of stuff that
(11:17):
Charlie's going through, youknow.
Um, and so it and ultimatelyhe's just a kid, so it's just
like yeah, you're a crazy, youknow, you're crazy thinking that
your neighbor is a vampire.
Right.
Dylan (11:31):
Um well and with how the movie overall started, I was I
enjoyed that because it gotright in it got right into it.
There wasn't a long intro madein black.
And like you're expecting it tobe start off that I call it
(12:02):
cheesy, you called it campy,uh-huh of the kind of the
classic um of the classicvampire tropes.
And then I love the switch upof it was like, oh, it's not
actually happening, it's just onTV.
TV, yeah.
Right.
That was I thought that was areally good switch up because I
(12:25):
truly was sitting there and waslike, oh, here we go.
Like this is gonna be a long,long movie.
Joe (12:33):
Yeah, and the dialogue in that scene is is just written to
that so wow.
Right.
That's kind of why I was like,you gotta watch this part of it.
It's just yeah, yeah, it'sthere's definitely some bait and
switch there on on that end ofit.
Dylan (12:52):
Yeah.
So but then with that scene,that's where that's where we
meet Brewster, who definitely,definitely plays that paranoid
teenager.
Yeah.
I mean, that's it's it was agood role.
Like he played it well.
Right.
Um who was the actor that didthat?
Joe (13:14):
William Ragsdale.
Okay.
Um yeah.
I mean, he he was in other uhother movies and shows, um, but
before that, um he wasn't hewasn't in much, so it was kind
of like a breakout role for him.
Yeah.
Um he went on to do a TV showthat was like for maybe a couple
(13:35):
of years called Um Herman Ted.
And it was like a precursor toInside Out.
I'll just say if if anybody wasgonna get the idea, it was from
that show.
Yeah.
And then, you know, it's it'skind of funny because the
biggest star in that movie um oflike the short list was Roddy
(13:56):
McDowell.
Um, you know, he played PeterPeter Vincent, uh-huh.
And Peter Vincent was a um acombination of of um Peter
Cushing, who was in Horror ofDracula, Curse of Frankenstein,
Sherlock Holmes, and playedGrand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.
Uh, and then so a mix of PeterCushing and Vincent Price.
(14:22):
So you got Peter Vincent, andVincent Price was in House on
Haunted Hill, The Fly, these areall like 50s movies.
Um, Last Man on Earth, um, heplayed Egghead in the Batman
series, and the biggest one forhim in the 80s was he was the
narrator for the the songThriller on the Thriller album.
Oh and uh apparently he almostwas going to do it, but he was
(14:49):
sick at the time, whichultimately he passed, and so he
he almost could have been PeterVincent, yeah, Vincent Price as
that role, and uh, but RoddyMcDowell got the part, and Roddy
McDowell was the child star,and um his hit I feel like his
biggest role that he took on forthe s end of the sixties and
(15:12):
the seventies was he was in allthe Planet of the Apes movies.
Um and so he played Caesar,which was the main ape that was
like the friendly game.
Um he played it so long that heended up playing his own son in
Planet of the Apes.
So Caesar has a son, and thenthey went generations, and then
he just ended up playing thenext Caesar character.
(15:33):
Yeah.
So I mean he was just you know,it just a great actor, and all
these movies, all these parts,and to have him on there, I
think most of the cast was justhonored to to have him uh on the
on the movie.
Yeah.
Um, they said he he had like acamera with him all the time,
(15:54):
and this is like video camera,huge, yeah.
So he was filming everything,um, telling them stories of
Hollywood.
They would be on sets and hewould say, you know, this
happened there, and this thismovie was shot this way, and so
he was just a wealth ofknowledge to them.
Dylan (16:11):
That's so cool.
Joe (16:12):
Um Chris Sarandon was probably the next person uh who
was kind of bigger uh name.
Uh he played Jerry Dandridge,the Ben Ba.
And uh he was in soap operas,he was in um uh Dog Day
Afternoon with Al Pacino, and Ithink he was nominated for uh
(16:34):
Oscar on that movie.
So, like, you know, yeah, youyou just have these two great
actors, and he would go on to uhto be in The Princess Bride and
played Prince Humperdek, whichis the you know the main
antagonist in that movie.
And it was really weird becausewhen I saw the Princess Bride
finally, um I was I was just alittle thrown off because I'm
(16:56):
used to seeing him as JerryDandridge being this like you
know, I was like, oh no.
Dylan (17:06):
My boy! Yeah.
Joe (17:08):
Um and then uh you know, newer, probably the newer of the
more popular roles of his wasuh Jack Skellington.
Uh so he was the oh yeah, yeah,the voice.
Okay.
I think Danny Elfman was asinging voice, and he was the
you know, the talking voice.
Yeah, that's cool.
(17:29):
So uh Amanda Beers as Amy.
Um I'll say it the funny thingwas so you know, five or six, uh
I'm I'm coming about as a kid,and I'm like, she's really
pretty.
Like, you know, like I did notthink that she was anything but
yeah, so then later on, uh theshow uh Married with Children
(17:54):
comes out, and she's the nextdoor neighbor, and she's
supposedly all these jokes comeout that she's ugly, and I'm
like, she's not ugly, like she'slike the butt of every joke,
and like all this stuff, likeshe's horrible and ugly, and all
this stuff, and I'm just like,I can't, I'm not buying it, you
know.
Just like it's like it's justyeah, I don't know.
(18:17):
But she uh she's written formovies and TV shows, and you
know, has had a successfulcareer since then.
Yeah.
Um, and then Evil Ed, StephenJeffries, he he didn't have much
of a career before it either,but he went on to star in a
movie called At Close Range anda couple other movies, um, and
(18:38):
then didn't go do too much afterthat.
But man, he was funny.
I just think in in this, youknow, I guess initially he
thought um, you know, he couldhe thought he was gonna get
Charlie's role.
He thought he was auditioningfor that, but yeah, so he was
kind of bummed.
He was like, I don't, you know,like they're like, You want me
(18:59):
for this?
I don't see it.
Like, I I just don't, you know,but I I don't think that
there's anybody else who couldhave played that like that.
Yeah, he definitely did thatwell.
I mean, maybe if Jim Carreycame out of the woodwork or
something at that time, butyeah.
Dylan (19:16):
Yeah, because that's where you definitely get
probably one of my favoritelines from the movie.
You're so cool, Brewster.
Yeah, exactly.
I can't stand it.
I can't stand it.
Joe (19:28):
You don't have any favorite lines?
Man, there's there's a couple.
There's the you're you're socool, Brewster.
Uh, I like Welcome to FrightNight.
Dylan (19:39):
Yeah.
Joe (19:39):
For real.
You know, he just yeah, the wayhe delivers that, it's just
like, oh, it's go time.
It's like time to throw down.
Dylan (19:50):
Yeah, you definitely know that you're getting ready for
it.
Joe (19:53):
Yeah.
Dylan (19:54):
That was a good line, too.
And I didn't write that down.
Yeah.
I was too into it at thatmoment, I guess.
Joe (20:00):
Yeah.
Dylan (20:02):
Yeah.
The something I really enjoyedabout this movie too is all of
the practical effects that theydid.
I mean, the the transformationsthat they did, or uh the guy
getting stabbed on the stairsand then just dissolving into
goo in the sand and then oh, umuh Billy.
Joe (20:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was that was umcompositing.
And they did so for for thatshot, they did three different
composites and three differenttakes on the blue screen to make
that happen.
Um and and so like they're justthere's just so much that went
(20:49):
into it.
And and that that guy was, youknow, we didn't even mention
him, but as a character, um,he's known as as a ghoul.
And so a ghoul in vampire loreis a person that becomes like a
slave to a vampire, and so he'she's like, you know, the the
typical lore is like you get bitand then you drink the blood
(21:10):
and then you become a vampire,right?
So he's in this state of wherehe hasn't fully become been able
to become a vampire, and so hebecomes a slave of the vampire,
so he's his servant, and so hecan walk around during the day
and help him with other things,and so he's probably like
(21:30):
hundreds of years old as well.
Okay, and so the reason why helike blew up the way he did when
he died was because he was aghoul and he had you know he was
still part.
That's why it wasn't until theystabbed him, staked him that he
fully died.
Man, okay, I didn't evenrealize yeah, it's just the
(21:52):
horror like you know kind ofgenre thing that uh you know
he's that's what he was becauseI always thought he was like a
zombie or or something, right?
Dylan (22:02):
You know, and so yeah, that's that was yeah, and then
going back to like evil ed'stransformation.
I I have to say I didn't quitefollow along with everything
there.
Okay, because in my I guess inmy mind, I was like, he was
(22:23):
bitten by vampire, and then heis vampire, goes after the
others.
Peter Vincent, yeah.
Yep, yep, goes after PeterVincent, and then not until
Peter Vincent goes to theBrewster's house to try to get
Charlie's mom and phone linescut, so goes upstairs to try to
(22:47):
wake her up, and then uh evil Edis the one in the bed, kinda
kind of a scare there, right?
And Peter runs out of the roomand then a like just full-blown
wolf comes out.
Yeah.
Not even like wolf man, justfull-blown wolf.
Joe (23:08):
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Dylan (23:09):
And then charges Peter, gets staked.
Joe (23:13):
Yeah.
Dylan (23:14):
And then which also like getting staked with the table
leg, yeah, that was pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I was like, okay, how'she how's he gonna pull this
off?
How's this gonna happen?
Yeah, and then with the tableleg, I was like, that was good.
That was good.
Joe (23:31):
Yeah.
What I liked about that, andI'll I'll go back to to the wolf
thing.
What I liked about his Peter'scharacter was that there was
this like growth of him actuallybecoming Peter Vincent of like
even better than Peter Vincentof the movies.
Right.
You know, like he he even tellshimself at one point, I am
(23:52):
Peter Vincent, you know, vampirekiller.
Dylan (23:55):
Yeah, because he really goes through several
transformations himself in themovies.
Yeah.
Of starts off as non-believer,and then we find out that he
needs money, and you know, so hehe does it for her money, yeah.
And then finds out that he'sactually a vampire, like not
(24:16):
just you know, drinking fakeholy water, tap water, right,
and then finding out that he's areal vampire, yeah, and then
just having kind of the spiraldownwards from there of like,
oh, I need to go, I need tohide, like, I just need to leave
this alone, I need to get outof here, yeah.
(24:37):
And then being, you know, themgoing to him and pleading to him
for help because in their eyes,you know, he's the real deal.
Joe (24:46):
Yeah, yeah, he's the real deal to them, whether he says it
or not.
Right.
He's built up this thing foryears, and and and inside he's
like, I'm not this person.
I I you know I can't evenafford to pay my bills right
now.
And right, I just got fired andyou know, they canceled my show
and and all this stuff, and andthen and then like a real
vampire thing happens.
(25:06):
He's like, How am I gonna dothis?
How am I gonna pull this up?
Dylan (25:09):
Right, yeah, and it's cool too, because they even
portray that in the movie whenhe doesn't have faith in the
cross, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, so yeah, it it justgoes to show the kind of the uh
what is it called?
Like the the care the characterarc.
Yeah, yeah.
(25:29):
I did it, yeah.
Joe (25:33):
Yeah, and so you know, at that point, he's just he's just
ready to roll, he's ready torock and roll, and he's done a
lot of stuff by then.
So when he meets evil ed, whathappens with evil ed is that
vampires can shape shift, andfor some reason Ed chooses this
wolf body as a shape shift, andso and that's how he chooses to
(25:57):
attack him.
Dylan (25:58):
Oh, okay.
Yeah, okay.
Joe (26:00):
So it's yeah, there's there's like they throw so much
vampire lore that like you know,I I didn't understand that too
for for a while, and and justwas like, wait, he's a wolf,
like I don't know why, right,you know, right.
Dylan (26:16):
We switched because like like for me watching it, I was
sitting there thinking, I waslike, are are we switching from
from vampire into into werewolfnow?
Like I thought that was adifferent species, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
But that's a different movieentirely, yeah.
Joe (26:38):
Did we switch channels or something?
Right.
Why is he?
But uh yeah, it it was uh justa shape shift, and that's what
he chose.
And I you know, that the waythey wrote that, I you know,
just watching it, you know, it'sso emotional, you know, because
you can see it in Peter Vince'seyes, like I just killed a kid.
(27:02):
Right, you know, like insidehe's like, I just killed this
kid, and he's watching him likedie.
And or did he?
But but he's just watching himgo and and he's just like he
wants like he's reaching out tohim and he pulls back because
he's like, I you know, I don'tknow if this is fake.
I don't know, yeah, you know,so it's just yeah, it's a pretty
(27:25):
emotional scene.
And the and then the way theyuh you know do some cuts, but
they they they kind of do thislike it's not seamless, but they
they do a really good job of oftransit you know transforming
him, you know, back into uhhuman form from a wolf to you
know and it's just like and andit's it's cool because they
(27:47):
didn't show that initially, butthey showed it at the end
because it seems like he'sstruggling because he wants to
keep the form of losing it,yeah.
And so it yeah, it's just uhreally cool scene.
I was like, this is prettyemotional, man.
What the heck?
What are you doing?
Tom Holland does it again,right?
Voice Over (28:15):
Are you tired of dates ending with bite marks and
emotional trauma?
Dylan (28:19):
Jerry's Fang Club.
Voice Over (28:27):
Then join Jerry's Fang Club, the only neighborhood
association that meets aftersunset.
We'll show you how to hostdinner parties without
accidentally eating the guests.
Pick up a cape that really popsand master the art of the
subtle hits.
Jerry's Fang Club, where everymember gets a real taste of the
(28:51):
community.
Dylan (28:51):
Join the Fang Club, it's all that club.
Joe (28:59):
Jerry's Fang Club will have you by um yeah, it's it's very
dark, it's very um yeah, smokyeighties.
(29:20):
I think mostly because youcould smoke anywhere in the 80s.
Now it's definitely got an LAvibe.
Uh yeah, yeah, because itthat's where it's supposed to
be.
Gotcha.
Or it's pretty much set andwas, you know, uh, you know,
filmed in LA and I think it wasUniversal or Paramount Backlot.
(29:41):
You can kind of see, you know,that you know the neighborhood
and things like that.
And yeah um, you know, thedowntown LA area.
Um there's a little point wherethey're going to that club, and
it actually reminds me of thecorner, a corner in Butte.
That metals is on.
(30:02):
There's a there's a placecalled metals in Butte, and
there's this little corner whereit goes down.
It starts to go like downhill.
Yeah.
Uh because Butte is just a bunchof hills and stuff like that.
Right.
Yeah.
And it was like, I was like,oh, that that totally looks like
that corner, but it's in LA,you know.
But you know, it could bepretty much anywhere set
(30:22):
anywhere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dylan (30:25):
Um and that's that's one of those things too, is that
they don't purposefully pick aplace to name so that it can
more feel like oh, it maybe it'syou know, maybe it's your
neighbor.
Joe (30:40):
Yeah, exactly.
Dylan (30:42):
The music in it too was really good.
Joe (30:45):
Yeah, very synthy, very, you know, of the 80s.
Dylan (30:49):
Right, definitely of its time.
Joe (30:51):
Yeah, of its time.
I I like it though.
I think I think it's come backaround.
Yeah.
The only thing, you know, Idon't know if I said it already,
but the only thing that I foundcheesy was the actual
soundtrack uh like uh the songfor Fright Night.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, it it's like I just foundlike like I it's almost like
(31:14):
they were going for a like upGhostbusters vibe, but it's just
did not hit the mark, you know.
Dylan (31:19):
Yeah, yeah, they were trying to kind of take over the
the airwaves again, right?
Joe (31:27):
Yeah, trying to get the video, music video out, and
yeah, you know, all that coolstuff.
Dylan (31:32):
And 'cause Ghostbusters was 84 and then this is 85, so
it's the next year.
Yeah.
And so they're like they'reseeing how much of a big hit
that the Ghostbusters theme songwas, right?
And they're probably thinkingto themselves, they're probably
thinking, ooh, let's recreatethat.
(31:53):
Yeah.
That you know, people playingthat pretty much free
advertising.
Joe (31:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's um the band thatdid it is called the Jay Giles
Band, and they have a reallygood song out there called Angel
in the Center Fold.
And I'm not gonna go into thatsong, but uh they really uh
they're a really good band.
And so it's really, really hardto be like, oh man, that that
song, you know, it was writtenby somebody else, so it was
(32:20):
like, yeah, um, but you know,it's just hard because it's like
this is not this it I justdidn't feel like it fit them,
you know, as a band.
Dylan (32:30):
And then with Tom Holland's d directing, um, he
definitely did such a a goodclever blend of the the the
classic horror and then mixingin the actual suspenseful parts
of it.
Joe (32:49):
Yeah, I think he threw in um a lot of Easter eggs if
you're a fan, and new stuff ifyou're not, and you know, just
yeah, great, great uh effectsand things.
Dylan (33:01):
Yeah, it definitely seems to me to be I even thought it
like while watching, I was like,I wonder how much of this
stuff, like in the the vampire'shouse that is taken from like
older movies.
Uh-huh.
And it's kind of one of those,if you know, you know.
(33:22):
Right.
But if not, you're just like,oh yeah, he's he's a collector.
He liked a long time.
Yeah.
Joe (33:28):
Yeah, there's definitely uh stuff in Peter Vincent's uh
house, and you can see like umthere is a Peter Cushing movie
that's playing, and then there'slike a Peter Cushing like um
posters, yeah, and all thehorror stuff.
And I guess uh I read thatthere is actually a face like um
(33:50):
kind of a mold of his own facein in the house.
Dylan (33:54):
Oh, is that that one was in the uh yeah, it's the white
one, right?
Yeah, that's in the apartment.
Joe (34:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you can kind of see it.
It it shows it really well atone point.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
Dylan (34:07):
So yeah, I even thought in the moment, I'm like, I bet
that's something.
Yeah, I don't know what it is.
Right.
You know, to me, it's just amask.
Yeah.
So, but I'm like, I'm surethat's from something.
Joe (34:17):
Yeah.
And Jared Dandridge, the funnything is is that he has this
corner.
So when you walk in the house,it's on the left side uh of just
clocks.
And they show them later, butit's like, especially uh after
the battle and everything andtime has come, and it's like,
but you really see all thoseclocks, it's like, whoa, like,
(34:38):
you know, he's got clocks fromall kinds of different places
and styles and and all that kindof stuff.
Dylan (34:46):
Yeah, definitely like for some of some of my favorite
scenes.
I thought when Charlie wasspying out the window and sees
Jerry grow the fangs for thefirst time, uh-huh.
Like that that was a good shot.
Joe (35:07):
Yeah.
Dylan (35:07):
Because you're it's one of those you're expecting it,
but then the way it was done waswell done, where you're like, I
didn't fully anticipate this.
Joe (35:18):
Right.
Yeah, and and it's funnybecause at that point the the
woman that he's with doesn'tseem bothered by anything and
doesn't seem yeah, you know, butthen you find out later that
she's in a trance, and you know,not her particularly, but
that's what he does is he putsthem in a trance, yeah, and so
(35:39):
they just are totally willinglygoing along with whatever he
wants.
Yeah, you know, so he's justlike you know, Charlie's just
blown away, like what what'sgoing on?
You know, right.
Dylan (35:51):
You saying that just rolls right into the nightclub
scene later on where Jerry'spretty much you know, trying to
seduce Amy, Amy, yeah, like you.
Joe (36:06):
Yeah, and and uh and he does, and and she's totally
down, and it's like see.
Dylan (36:13):
I mean, she it's so good the way she portrayed that
because you you just felt likeshe was totally wrapped in right
in whatever he was doing.
Joe (36:22):
Yeah, she's like Charlie Who, you know.
Right.
I do like the nod to to himbeing a vampire and her
realizing it even though evenwhile she's in the trance.
Dylan (36:33):
Her trying to fight it and like it's clicking into
place, but yeah, can she dosomething about it?
Joe (36:40):
Yeah, and she's you know, it's just that whole mirror shot
of him disappearing and youknow, like and her looking back
and forth.
Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.
Dylan (36:50):
Yeah.
Joe (36:52):
Um, you know, evil ed's transformation um of when he
becomes a vampire, I I thinkthere's a lot there because you
know, he was a kid who waspicked on.
I think they were both kind ofpicked on, and they they became
friends because they were pickedon, but they would pick on each
other, right?
You know, and so like you justget that feeling of being a kid
(37:16):
who's picked on, and you don'thave very many friends, and this
person comes to you and says,You can have all this power,
right?
You know, I'm offering you away out of it, yeah, and and you
can come with me, and he'slike, Okay, yeah, like I you
know, it it's it's sad, but ityou know yeah, I mean it's
(37:36):
definitely plays into Jerry'smanipulation, right?
Dylan (37:41):
And like, you know, I think if Ed fully realized what
was going to happen, he probablywouldn't have.
Joe (37:50):
Yeah, yeah.
And I I think that's whereCharlie's like a different, you
know, different has differentcharacter as a as a person, and
and it's just like can see pastthat.
It's like no, I am not gonna,you know, because when they're
in the bedroom and he's like,I'm gonna give you the chance
that I wasn't given, you know.
Right.
(38:10):
And and he does kind of saylike he's gonna let him go if he
just leaves it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dylan (38:16):
Cause he he says, You forget about me, I'll forget
about you.
Joe (38:20):
Yeah, yeah.
Dylan (38:21):
And uh he did not forget or forgive.
Yeah, yeah, there was noforgiveness.
Yeah, I definitely really likedthe scene where Peter Vincent
realizes that oh crap, yeah,it's real.
Joe (38:42):
Yeah.
Because he is totally down forlike, let's go.
And he's like, Yeah, he drankthe water, you know, and and it
was all an act at that point.
Right.
And then he just like looks inthe mirror and he's like, What?
Yep.
Dylan (38:57):
And so like I like to think that you, you know,
something was probably naggingat him of something is not right
with this, with this man.
I'm gonna check the mirror realquick.
Joe (39:12):
Yeah.
Dylan (39:13):
Because it's just a little pocket mirror, right?
It's not like it was a a greatbig mirror that was up on the
wall or something.
Joe (39:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And yeah, it's just he stillthat has that inner Peter
Vincent that that just can't letit go.
Yeah.
Right.
And I think that's why he wasfighting it when when he's
trying to take off, becauselike, no, I don't want to do
this, I don't want to be thisperson.
Like, I don't want to fight, Idon't wanna, you know, it's just
(39:44):
I'm out of here, you know.
Dylan (39:46):
So with the with the finale scene too, I totally
missed that they were windows atfirst until they started
smashing them open and you couldsee the light beams.
Joe (39:58):
Yeah.
Dylan (39:58):
Cause I don't know if it was from where I was sitting or
what, but to me, I was like, whyis all of a sudden the wall has
a hole in it and there's nowlight coming through when
they're in the basement?
Joe (40:11):
Yeah, uh-huh.
Dylan (40:12):
So so yeah, it it took it definitely took me a second to
realize that there was likesupposed to be windows, yeah,
yeah.
Joe (40:19):
And I'm sure that um Billy blacked them out and got that
place ready.
Right.
You know, that was part of theprocess, right?
Like they were probably like,uh, you know, future reference,
we should probably just board upthe windows.
Right.
Right.
Dylan (40:38):
I think maybe to me, I think that they should have made
them a little more obvious,framed for windows.
Yeah.
I I don't know.
I would ask you if you feellike it's recognizable or not,
but you've also seen it so manytimes.
Joe (40:55):
No, I don't think it's obvious.
I think it I don't know, maybethey're doing it that way or
they wanted to do it that wayjust so that you know, um, yeah,
it wouldn't be so obvious.
Uh yeah.
Dylan (41:07):
But because they could maybe even frame it, you know,
if we were kind of recreatingthat the the finale fight scene.
Yeah.
You know, if they framed it assomething accidentally breaks a
window, and they're like, oh,there's windows down here, yeah.
And then they have to kind ofgo down the wall trying to find
(41:29):
windows.
I feel like that might be setup a little better than just oh,
I don't know that there's youknow the I've never been down in
this basement before, yeah.
But I felt like they knew rightwhere to go for the windows.
Joe (41:45):
Yeah, I would have thought Charlie would have known because
he lived next door and he wouldhave known the perimeter of the
house.
Dylan (41:52):
Oh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
So touching back on uh what didyou call it?
Comp composting?
Compositing.
Joe (42:01):
Yeah, excuse me.
Compositing.
Composting is what they weredoing with the bodies.
Right.
One's brand food, one's billmetadata.
Yeah.
Dylan (42:13):
So so for that, you said that they took three three
different shots for the sameone.
So do they just layer ittogether then?
Joe (42:25):
Yeah, so they had like a Billy on his own in a blues with
a blue screen, and then heacted out the part.
Okay.
And then they had so here's thecool thing, and I looked into
um so the effects artist haddone multiple movies.
He worked on Ghostbusters, heworked on um let's see, I have a
(42:47):
whole list here.
He worked on uh so it's SteveJohnson FX.
He worked on pre-production forthe Tim Burton Superman, which
is like Nick Cage was supposedto be Superman, and he it ended
up not happening, but you know,they kind of got like studios
will will get effects houses andsay, We're doing this movie,
(43:09):
give us your best, and everybodyputs in for a bid.
It's just like contracting, youknow.
Oh, okay.
So he did pre-production forthat, for the Hulk, for
Fantastic Four, for GhostGhostwriter.
Um, he worked on Fright Knight,Ghostbusters, Spider-Man 2,
Predator, so like the originalArnold Schwarzenegger Predator.
Um so a lot of the stuff thathe did was was practic try to do
(43:33):
practical effects as much as hecould.
Um and so in that shot, on theon one hand, um he wanted to do
so that on Billy for the mainpart, it was a Indiana Jones
inspiration, and so he theywanted him to melt, and so they
did like a sh, you know, slowmelting effect.
For example, if they took thethe imprint of the if they took
(43:56):
the left hand and they took theback of the right hand and made
that a glove, then the left handwould push the fingers forward
and it would look like the handis melting backwards or towards
the camera.
And so they they're squeezing,you know, their their hand
forward, but it looks like thehand is going backward.
Dylan (44:17):
And so oh yeah, yeah.
Joe (44:19):
So like things like that.
Um, one of my favorite things,um, you know, we talked about
the scene where he um Jerrycomes and um goes to the house
because he's already invited,and mom invites him in.
Yeah, have a little drink.
Yeah, that that scene too isjust I mean, you kind of think
(44:39):
of things as you as you gothrough, but like, you know, you
see his hand on the chair, andthen but so when he goes up to
the room and they're fightingand and you know that that
initial um I think I think whenCharlie drew the line in the
sand was when he stabbed him inthe hand.
And so what they did with thatwas um they took a they took a
(45:07):
pencil that retracted in, and sowhen he stabbed it, it
retracted.
Yeah.
Right?
So, but then on the other side,they had they already had uh a
uh prosthetic of a pencil thatretracted out, and so as you
turn your palm up, it's alreadythere, but it looks like it just
(45:30):
got stabbed through.
So then when you pull thepencil out, it looks like it's
coming out of the hand, and thethe one underneath gets pulled
fast so that you don't seeright, so it's this one
continuous shot of this pencilgoing in and coming out the
other side, yeah.
Um, and so like just thingslike that where you know it
(45:52):
takes time and and money to makethings better, and like that
shot to some people might not beas significant, but it's so
cool and looks so cool, and likeyou know, it just had such an
effect in it.
Like um, the these effects inthis movie were just I mean,
just yeah, out of the park, youknow.
Dylan (46:12):
So I loved the idea of using a pencil as the you know,
the the the to show the woodenstake, right?
Joe (46:22):
You know, it's like a great start, yeah.
And the great thing about ittoo was like there's a genuine
like um Jerry had a genuinereaction of like, oh, you're
declaring war, like you know,right, it's go time, like yeah,
and he was genuinely hurt by it,like like he was like
(46:44):
physically in pain and it waslike he was reeling back from
it, yeah, yeah.
And I I like how um in thatwhole thing with the cross and
all that kind of stuff, like youyou could see Charlie had the
faith, you know, like CharlieCharlie was was was a believer
yeah.
Dylan (47:04):
Going back real quick to the retractable pencil, too.
Um I could I saw that it was aretractable pencil.
Okay.
Um I picked up on that, and Ithink that's partially to the
horror makeup show at UniversalOrband.
Oh yeah, because they have asuper similar one with a knife,
(47:27):
yeah, yeah.
And and show what is it?
They're cut, you know, cuttingthrough a person's arm.
Uh-huh.
And so then they have the bloodwith it.
Yeah.
Joe (47:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that show, that makeupshow.
That that's the thing aboutlike even with this movie that
that makes me love that too, youknow, because it's such a
tribute to to all those monstersand early horror.
Dylan (47:52):
Yeah, but I definitely I definitely enjoyed the movie
more because it did have all ofthose practical effects with it.
And it wasn't just slap on someCGI and call it call it done.
Joe (48:06):
Right, right.
And there was so much that, youknow, with the like with the
compositing, that's the thebasically as far as you could go
in the in that time, you know,is just compositing and yeah,
putting together frames and andscenes or whatever to make that
happen.
But yeah, yeah, ultimately itwas like, yeah, you had to
(48:26):
figure out, okay, we gotta gofrom point A to B.
How are we gonna do this?
Or how did somebody else do it?
And how can I do a littletribute to that, you know?
Dylan (48:35):
Yeah.
And then what was up with allof like the apples and stuff
throughout the movie?
Because when he was first inthe backyard and you could hear
him crunching, yeah.
I I I don't know, I thoughtthat it was gonna be like a body
part.
Joe (48:52):
Oh, that he was crunching on a body part, yeah.
You see what I mean?
Yeah, I do, I do.
So like I guess ChrisSarandon's idea was that um that
he would be part fruit bat.
And so when any when a fruitbat um you know has kills its
prey, it will eat fruit tocleanse its palate.
(49:16):
Oh and so the idea is wheneveryou see him eating fruit, he had
just oh yeah, he had just it'soff somebody.
Yeah.
So oh, that's great.
Yeah, it's like it's almostlike you wish you knew that
ahead of time or something,because like it's just like he's
just really on a really healthydiet.
(49:37):
Right.
Dylan (49:38):
Congratulations, like it must be nice.
So I know when we were talkingabout doing this episode, you
had specifically said the 85version, so they they did a
remake of it.
Joe (49:56):
Yeah, uh they did it with Colum Farrell.
Um, and I haven't seen it.
It didn't look really thatgreat to me.
Yeah.
Um, like it's set in Vegas,it's modern, there's a modern
take on it, and you know, Icould see nightlife, Vegas, all
that kind of thing maybe playingout, but I just I just haven't
(50:20):
seen it.
I haven't haven't tried towatch it.
I mean, Colin Farrell's prettygood in some m movies, but it
just didn't appeal to me.
Dylan (50:28):
Something else I noticed throughout um I felt like there
was lots of like differentinconsistencies throughout the
movie.
So like I'll give you someexamples and you can tell me why
I'm wrong.
Okay.
But so when when evil Ed turnedinto a vampire, it was right
(50:50):
away.
Yeah or we're kind of led toyou know believe that a little
more because he pretty muchyeah, he turns around right away
and pretty much goes to toPeter Vincent's and yeah, got
let got invited in, right?
Which is really good.
Yeah.
But then on the flip side ofthat, Amy turns slowly, uh-huh.
(51:13):
And he's like, Well, you haveuntil just before dawn to you
know save her.
Joe (51:20):
Yeah.
Dylan (51:21):
And then also on the same hand, Amy knew right away to be
weary of the holy symbol, yeah.
You know, that it was was bad,right, you know, for her.
Joe (51:36):
Uh-huh.
Dylan (51:37):
And then it seemed like Ed did not.
Which I know that one is alittle more of Ed is going to
bite Peter, and then Peter, youknow, quick thinking gets the
cross out.
Gets the cross out, but I feellike with where it was, like Ed
(51:57):
kind of saw it coming a littlemore.
Joe (52:00):
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know.
I feel like once he got thecrossout, he knew.
Yeah.
And and then that's why itburned the heck out of him,
because it was like Yeah.
Dylan (52:11):
Yeah.
I mean, that one can beexplained away a little easier
than the whole timeline thing.
Yeah.
Which I get, you know, we gottawe gotta do plot here.
Yeah.
But you know, yeah, I justthought that that was kind of a
for me, that was a biginconsistency.
That like if I manage toconsider that while watching the
movie, yeah, like I feel likethat's kind of a big hole.
Joe (52:34):
Yeah.
Dylan (52:35):
Also, why did Amy's hair grow longer and change color?
Joe (52:41):
Yeah.
I mean, even in even in it.
Even in well, even in thedancing scene, her hair changes.
Dylan (52:48):
Does it?
Joe (52:48):
It does.
Dylan (52:50):
Hole.
Joe (52:50):
Yeah.
I think it was just part of hischarisma.
Like it was just like trying toshow like the um how much
influence he would have.
Dylan (53:01):
Yeah.
I get, you know, to kind ofform her in his in his will or
whatever, or to his will.
Joe (53:08):
Yeah.
Dylan (53:09):
But also like the ending was so good.
Like the actual ending wherewhere it's Ed, or we know it's
Ed, uh-huh, looking from thedarkened window.
Yeah.
Voice Over (53:22):
That was so good.
Dylan (53:24):
Yeah.
I know.
Joe (53:25):
I I don't I think you missed it, but initially there
was you seen real quick thesered eyes.
Yeah.
And then that's why uh Charliewas looking, started to look
over.
Oh, okay.
And then he's like, What theheck?
You know, and then Right.
I think I see some.
Yeah.
And then and then he he doesshow himself.
And man, I was ready for asequel, you know.
Dylan (53:48):
Yeah, it's set, I mean, it sets it up like pretty pretty
perfectly.
Joe (53:53):
Yeah, and it took a while.
I think the next one came outin 88, but there's actually what
confused me, I was, you know,so if the second one came out in
88, um the uh I would have beeneight or nine.
So there was a movie in betweencalled 976 Evil, and it was
with the same actor.
So it it I thought it was asequel because it was called 976
(54:16):
Evil, and but I hadn't seen it,so I didn't know, and uh come
to find out it wasn't a sequelat all.
But that could have been hecould have had his own sequel,
yeah, you know, like uh evil edsequel, and you know, maybe he's
trying to build up vampires oryou know, like it could have
been, but yeah, we'll neverknow.
Dylan (54:38):
Is it when a vampire bites somebody and turns them
into a vampire that they are nowkind of subservient to?
Kind of their the original one?
Joe (54:50):
Yeah, pretty much.
Okay, and so you have like amaster, and you know, and the
the second one, uh, I guess it'sa sister that comes after
Charlie.
Oh so yeah.
Dylan (55:04):
We're gonna have to add that one to the watch list.
Right.
All right.
Well, how many wooden stakesout of ten would you rate this?
Joe (55:16):
Oh I'm gonna pull a Dave.
I'll probably give it eight.
Dylan (55:23):
Solid eight.
Um coming in.
Eight stakes.
Number eight.
Number eight.
Joe (55:30):
Um Right Night.
Dylan (55:33):
Yeah, I would I would probably have said seven or
eight.
Yeah.
So I I yeah, yeah, I I totallyagree with that.
Nice.
Um kind of like we said at thetop of the episode, like not as
not as cheesy as I thought itwas gonna be.
Yeah.
Like truly got into it and andenjoyed it.
Joe (55:53):
Yeah, yeah.
It it pulls you in and and youknow, all the buildup of all the
characters of you know, itdoesn't take too long to build
all that up because even PeterVincent's introduced right away.
All three of them areintroduced right away.
Yeah, it's just you know, youjust find out that Peter Vincent
isn't who you think he is atfirst, and then he becomes the
(56:16):
Peter Vincent he needs to be.
That we need him to be.
That we need him to be, that wedeserve.
Yep.
Dylan (56:23):
Do you think that it uh that it still holds up as a
Halloween staple?
Joe (56:28):
I think so.
I I really do.
I think there's enough,especially there's enough fans
out there that you know, withwith all the amount of vampire
movies that there are, I thinkit it fits right in with all of
those.
Dylan (56:42):
Um it just yeah, it's it's a pretty yeah, because you
were you were kind of talkingabout how you wish you had more
time for spooky season to fit inmore more spookies.
Joe (56:56):
Yeah, yeah.
There's Lost Boys, um AmericanWerewolf in London, you know,
just just to get you know a fewmore would be great.
Dylan (57:06):
Yeah.
Well, maybe we'll sprinkle themin throughout the first season.
Joe (57:09):
Yeah.
Dylan (57:10):
But yeah, I definitely think it's it definitely does a
great job of balancing your youknow, your camp and and creepy.
Joe (57:19):
Yeah, yeah.
And and yeah, it again, it it'sI feel like it's more comedic
than it is campy.
And they even put that firstclip of Peter Vincent to to be
like they're like, we're notgonna be this.
Right, right.
And so a keynote on that that Ihadn't noticed until it was
(57:39):
pointed out, is in that shotwhen Peter Vincent puts up the
stake, he actually has itbackwards, and so the flat end
is towards the that's funny.
Dylan (57:53):
I did not pick up on that.
Yeah.
But yeah, definitely goes toshow his character is not quite
what he's you know cracked up tobe there.
Yeah, yeah.
Joe (58:04):
But you gotta you gotta give it to Roddy McDonnell.
He's great actor and just youknow, had a great part.
Dylan (58:11):
Yeah, for sure.
Joe (58:14):
So next week we're switching the tables, we're
turning the tables on ourepisodes.
So so far, all of theseepisodes, uh, all of these
movies you haven't seen, Dylan.
So we're actually gonna do amovie that I haven't seen.
That's right.
Focus focus.
Dylan (58:30):
Which how have I seen that and not you?
Joe (58:33):
I don't know.
I do not know.
I know the actresses in it areamazing.
Yeah, it's so good.
Dylan (58:40):
But yeah, that's I and that's not one that I grew up
watching, it's just one that Igot introduced to fairly
recently, a couple years ago,and have watched every year
since.
Joe (58:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Dylan (58:53):
So, but yeah, I'm super excited to to be able to do that
one next week.
So keep an eye out for thatone.
All right.
So thank you guys forlistening.
And if you have any favoritescenes in Fright Knight that we
did not cover, let us know.
Joe (59:08):
If you have any favorite movies that you want us to
cover, let us know as well.
There's likely a chance thatDylan hasn't seen him, and
there's a slim chance that Ihaven't seen a movie or two.
Dylan (59:21):
Check out the socials, all the links to everything are
down in the description.
And that's all for this week.
And remember, keep your windowsclosed.
You never know who might bewatching.
You're so cool, Brewster.
Uh what did you call it?
Com composting?
Com compositing.
Yeah, excuse me.
Composting is what they weredoing with the bodies.
Dylan (00:43):
The movie podcast, where every movie is a premiere.
Joe (00:46):
It's spooky season, and this week we're dusting off one
of the best vampire horrorcomedies the 80s ever gave us.
Fright Night.
Dylan (00:56):
This week's movie, Fright Night, came out in 1985, and it
is rated R.
It's got blood, fangs, nudity,and 80s hair product that may
disturb some viewers.
So listener discretion isadvised.
Joe (01:08):
It's partly responsible for the hole in the ozone layer.
Dylan (01:15):
So going into it, I totally thought that it was
going to be more cheesy than itwas.
Joe (01:22):
Yeah.
Dylan (01:23):
Like honestly, I I quite enjoyed it actually.
Yeah.
Joe (01:29):
Yeah, I think I think it probably gets a bad rap because
it's you know it's a horrormovie, it's 80s.
Right.
Um, you know, there's there'svery few in that genre that kind
of stand the test of time oreven stick out from the rest
because they all kind of getthat same, you know, uh cliche
(01:51):
kind of stuff going on.
Dylan (01:52):
But yeah, because it's super easy to really just put
that into a box and be like, ohyeah, this is you know the the
cheesy 80s, you know, this isthe cheesy 80s box.
We're going to take it out andpull something.
Oh, yeah, super cheesy.
Yeah.
Yeah, not this one, really.
Joe (02:11):
So um it was written and directed by Tom Holland uh
before Child's Play.
We were just talking aboutChild's Play and uh the My Buddy
doll and turns into the goodguy doll and goes after people,
and that's that's a whole maybewe'll do an episode.
Dylan (02:28):
Yeah, I I have not seen that one.
Joe (02:30):
Yeah.
So Tom Holland wanted to bringback the classic horror genre in
a new way.
Um movies, you know, as we weretalking, movies at that time in
the genre of classic horror oreven the classic monsters were
generally campy and comedy.
Um shortly after that.
Um Jim Carrey did one of hisfirst movies called Once Bitten,
(02:52):
and that was just a camp festof comedy.
Oh yeah.
Dylan (02:57):
Well, and I feel like you kind of he definitely
referenced that in the movietoo, like with the with the TV
rolling and stuff of like thethe big cheese moments.
Joe (03:08):
Yeah, Peter Vincent and showing clips from the horror
genre, and then even him saying,like, you know, kids are not
wanting to watch these anymore.
Right.
Yeah.
So he wanted to do he wanted totake kind of the idea of the
boy who cried wolf and meet itwith vampires.
And so you kind of have thethat main kind of story arc
(03:33):
throughout is nobody believeshim.
Dylan (03:35):
Right.
That was definitely I didn'trealize okay.
I didn't realize there was kindof following the the boy who
cried wolf trope, but itdefinitely played that off
really well.
Right.
So quick plot rundown ateenager discovers his new next
door neighbor is a vampire, andnobody believes him.
So he turns to a washed uphorror host for help.
Joe (03:58):
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Dylan (04:02):
Yeah, watching it, there was a lot of decent jump scares.
I was I was really kind ofimpressed.
I thought the only one thatlike that got me that I was mad
about is the is the one where Ialso scared your cat.
(04:23):
Yeah.
She jumped up.
She did.
Um but it's the scene where Edis running away from Peter down
the alley, and Ed is waiting forhim to like come through the
the smoke, fog, whatever it was.
(04:43):
Oh.
And like it was really cool theway they set it up because you
could see the fog like comingcloser and filling the alley,
and then like it retreats, andyou're like waiting for him to
like kind of appear through thefog of just standing there.
Right.
And then he's not, and you'relike, oh, maybe you know, what
(05:08):
did he go after the other twonow?
Yeah.
But then he comes, stands, youknow, steps out of the side from
behind him.
Joe (05:16):
Yeah, from behind him.
Dylan (05:17):
And what made me mad was the symbols.
Oh the symbol clash.
Okay.
Like, I wouldn't have jumped,but it was just like just the
loud of the symbols.
Joe (05:29):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of cool becausethe the fog is a character in
the movie, and they use the fogto be him to move around.
It's kind of like it's kind oflike that Jaws thing, you know.
And even when uh he flies over,you know, it's just the camera,
it's just like a right, youknow, so there's there's a lot
(05:49):
of cool stuff that they use, youknow, like that.
Dylan (05:52):
Yeah, and that's definitely a note that I wrote
down was that I loved that itwent from the shot from up on
the roof and like it switchedinto a first-person view of him
then like going down the roofline because as he was moving
(06:15):
down the roof and you could hearhis footsteps.
At first I was like annoyedbecause I thought I was like,
did they not edit it out fromthe cameraman like walking down
it?
Yeah, and then it like clicked.
I was like, oh, okay, no,that's you know, we have
switched perspectives now,right?
(06:36):
So yeah, I was like, I waslike, applause on that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Joe (06:41):
Yeah.
For me, nostalgia uh kind ofgoes back to I didn't check the
month, but I think this was donein '85.
So I might have been eitherfive or six.
Yeah.
And my aunt uh who used towatch me and my brother, um,
took us to see this.
Dylan (07:01):
What?
Joe (07:01):
So I'm five or six in the theater watching this, and my
brother is just like having thetime of his life.
Dylan (07:11):
Um and so I I I assume he's older than you then.
Joe (07:15):
Yeah, he's so he's like maybe three years older.
Dylan (07:18):
Okay.
Joe (07:19):
Yeah.
So um I think it was prettymuch at the part at the end
where you know everything's justgoing awry, and you know, it's
just it's the battle.
It's the darkest hour.
Yeah.
And and you know, girlfriendcomes out with, you know, shark
teeth and all that.
And I'm just crying like ababy, because I was.
(07:42):
So I'm crying.
We're in the back of thetheater.
There is a layer of curtainsbehind the behind us.
And my brother, I don't Ididn't even notice he was gone.
He jumps out from behind thecurtains and discard me for
(08:04):
life.
Oh man.
It was just like, oh, so yeah,this was one that I saw in the
theaters that I didn't like fora while, but then I went back
and watched it, and I was like,okay, it wasn't that as bad as I
thought, you know.
And I I've come to kind of, youknow, kind of love this movie
more because of that, you know.
Dylan (08:24):
Yeah, so how would you say that it really compares to
more of the modern horrormovies?
Joe (08:32):
Yeah, I think I mean a lot of these movies just kind of,
you know, what do they say, walkso the other ones could run,
you know?
Yeah.
And I I think it was just oneof those because um you know,
you see modern horror movies andit just gets more complex,
whether it's the story or theswitches of you know how things
(08:55):
are changing in the story.
Um, is this is this person themurderer, and then you find out
it's not, and it's actually thisperson, or just all that kind
of stuff.
And um, you know, there there'sthere are a lot of vampire
movies after that did, you know,that took different avenues and
(09:17):
took different directions andthings like that.
And I think this one really,you know, because they were just
trying to bring back thatgenre, just changed the idea
overall of what a vampire waslike, you know, like this guy's
like super cool, like you wantto hang out with him, he's like
super fashionable for the time,you know.
Dylan (09:38):
I mean, he's he definitely they definitely tried
to give him kind of more ofthat sexy vibe.
Joe (09:42):
Yeah, exactly.
So you you don't really thinkof vampires that way
necessarily, right?
And it and it is a lot of theaw, aw, you know, that kind of
accent.
Dylan (09:55):
And which they did throw in a couple times, yeah.
Joe (09:58):
And I think he he like the way he did it though, was a
little more like care uh acaricature of just because he
was taunting Peter Vincent attimes.
Dylan (10:09):
Yeah.
Yeah, something that I enjoyedabout the movie is how much it
was able to how Fright Knightwas able to really kind of walk
the tightrope between being thethe legit vampire thriller and
more of the parody.
Joe (10:29):
Right.
Um yeah, and I I think thatgoes back to Tom Holland and
wanting to bring back a legit,you know, genre to uphold the
classic monsters, you know.
Um you know, like you havethose universal monsters and and
he really wanted to hold thatup, so he kind of you know
(10:52):
skirted the line on not andtrying not to be campy and
trying to be a little more likecomedy was there because like
there's just good times wheneither it's evil or you know,
yeah, other people are you know,they're high they're in high
school, so there there is athread of that comedy that's
already there with uh hormonesand all that kind of stuff that
(11:17):
Charlie's going through, youknow.
Um, and so it and ultimatelyhe's just a kid, so it's just
like yeah, you're a crazy, youknow, you're crazy thinking that
your neighbor is a vampire.
Right.
Dylan (11:31):
Um well and with how the movie overall started, I was I
enjoyed that because it gotright in it got right into it.
There wasn't a long intro madein black.
And like you're expecting it tobe start off that I call it
(12:02):
cheesy, you called it campy,uh-huh of the kind of the
classic um of the classicvampire tropes.
And then I love the switch upof it was like, oh, it's not
actually happening, it's just onTV.
TV, yeah.
Right.
That was I thought that was areally good switch up because I
(12:25):
truly was sitting there and waslike, oh, here we go.
Like this is gonna be a long,long movie.
Joe (12:33):
Yeah, and the dialogue in that scene is is just written to
that so wow.
Right.
That's kind of why I was like,you gotta watch this part of it.
It's just yeah, yeah, it'sthere's definitely some bait and
switch there on on that end ofit.
Dylan (12:52):
Yeah.
So but then with that scene,that's where that's where we
meet Brewster, who definitely,definitely plays that paranoid
teenager.
Yeah.
I mean, that's it's it was agood role.
Like he played it well.
Right.
Um who was the actor that didthat?
Joe (13:14):
William Ragsdale.
Okay.
Um yeah.
I mean, he he was in other uhother movies and shows, um, but
before that, um he wasn't hewasn't in much, so it was kind
of like a breakout role for him.
Yeah.
Um he went on to do a TV showthat was like for maybe a couple
(13:35):
of years called Um Herman Ted.
And it was like a precursor toInside Out.
I'll just say if if anybody wasgonna get the idea, it was from
that show.
Yeah.
And then, you know, it's it'skind of funny because the
biggest star in that movie um oflike the short list was Roddy
(13:56):
McDowell.
Um, you know, he played PeterPeter Vincent, uh-huh.
And Peter Vincent was a um acombination of of um Peter
Cushing, who was in Horror ofDracula, Curse of Frankenstein,
Sherlock Holmes, and playedGrand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.
Uh, and then so a mix of PeterCushing and Vincent Price.
(14:22):
So you got Peter Vincent, andVincent Price was in House on
Haunted Hill, The Fly, these areall like 50s movies.
Um, Last Man on Earth, um, heplayed Egghead in the Batman
series, and the biggest one forhim in the 80s was he was the
narrator for the the songThriller on the Thriller album.
Oh and uh apparently he almostwas going to do it, but he was
(14:49):
sick at the time, whichultimately he passed, and so he
he almost could have been PeterVincent, yeah, Vincent Price as
that role, and uh, but RoddyMcDowell got the part, and Roddy
McDowell was the child star,and um his hit I feel like his
biggest role that he took on forthe s end of the sixties and
(15:12):
the seventies was he was in allthe Planet of the Apes movies.
Um and so he played Caesar,which was the main ape that was
like the friendly game.
Um he played it so long that heended up playing his own son in
Planet of the Apes.
So Caesar has a son, and thenthey went generations, and then
he just ended up playing thenext Caesar character.
(15:33):
Yeah.
So I mean he was just you know,it just a great actor, and all
these movies, all these parts,and to have him on there, I
think most of the cast was justhonored to to have him uh on the
on the movie.
Yeah.
Um, they said he he had like acamera with him all the time,
(15:54):
and this is like video camera,huge, yeah.
So he was filming everything,um, telling them stories of
Hollywood.
They would be on sets and hewould say, you know, this
happened there, and this thismovie was shot this way, and so
he was just a wealth ofknowledge to them.
Dylan (16:11):
That's so cool.
Joe (16:12):
Um Chris Sarandon was probably the next person uh who
was kind of bigger uh name.
Uh he played Jerry Dandridge,the Ben Ba.
And uh he was in soap operas,he was in um uh Dog Day
Afternoon with Al Pacino, and Ithink he was nominated for uh
(16:34):
Oscar on that movie.
So, like, you know, yeah, youyou just have these two great
actors, and he would go on to uhto be in The Princess Bride and
played Prince Humperdek, whichis the you know the main
antagonist in that movie.
And it was really weird becausewhen I saw the Princess Bride
finally, um I was I was just alittle thrown off because I'm
(16:56):
used to seeing him as JerryDandridge being this like you
know, I was like, oh no.
Dylan (17:06):
My boy! Yeah.
Joe (17:08):
Um and then uh you know, newer, probably the newer of the
more popular roles of his wasuh Jack Skellington.
Uh so he was the oh yeah, yeah,the voice.
Okay.
I think Danny Elfman was asinging voice, and he was the
you know, the talking voice.
Yeah, that's cool.
(17:29):
So uh Amanda Beers as Amy.
Um I'll say it the funny thingwas so you know, five or six, uh
I'm I'm coming about as a kid,and I'm like, she's really
pretty.
Like, you know, like I did notthink that she was anything but
yeah, so then later on, uh theshow uh Married with Children
(17:54):
comes out, and she's the nextdoor neighbor, and she's
supposedly all these jokes comeout that she's ugly, and I'm
like, she's not ugly, like she'slike the butt of every joke,
and like all this stuff, likeshe's horrible and ugly, and all
this stuff, and I'm just like,I can't, I'm not buying it, you
know.
Just like it's like it's justyeah, I don't know.
(18:17):
But she uh she's written formovies and TV shows, and you
know, has had a successfulcareer since then.
Yeah.
Um, and then Evil Ed, StephenJeffries, he he didn't have much
of a career before it either,but he went on to star in a
movie called At Close Range anda couple other movies, um, and
(18:38):
then didn't go do too much afterthat.
But man, he was funny.
I just think in in this, youknow, I guess initially he
thought um, you know, he couldhe thought he was gonna get
Charlie's role.
He thought he was auditioningfor that, but yeah, so he was
kind of bummed.
He was like, I don't, you know,like they're like, You want me
(18:59):
for this?
I don't see it.
Like, I I just don't, you know,but I I don't think that
there's anybody else who couldhave played that like that.
Yeah, he definitely did thatwell.
I mean, maybe if Jim Carreycame out of the woodwork or
something at that time, butyeah.
Dylan (19:16):
Yeah, because that's where you definitely get
probably one of my favoritelines from the movie.
You're so cool, Brewster.
Yeah, exactly.
I can't stand it.
I can't stand it.
Joe (19:28):
You don't have any favorite lines?
Man, there's there's a couple.
There's the you're you're socool, Brewster.
Uh, I like Welcome to FrightNight.
Dylan (19:39):
Yeah.
Joe (19:39):
For real.
You know, he just yeah, the wayhe delivers that, it's just
like, oh, it's go time.
It's like time to throw down.
Dylan (19:50):
Yeah, you definitely know that you're getting ready for
it.
Joe (19:53):
Yeah.
Dylan (19:54):
That was a good line, too.
And I didn't write that down.
Yeah.
I was too into it at thatmoment, I guess.
Joe (20:00):
Yeah.
Dylan (20:02):
Yeah.
The something I really enjoyedabout this movie too is all of
the practical effects that theydid.
I mean, the the transformationsthat they did, or uh the guy
getting stabbed on the stairsand then just dissolving into
goo in the sand and then oh, umuh Billy.
Joe (20:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was that was umcompositing.
And they did so for for thatshot, they did three different
composites and three differenttakes on the blue screen to make
that happen.
Um and and so like they're justthere's just so much that went
(20:49):
into it.
And and that that guy was, youknow, we didn't even mention
him, but as a character, um,he's known as as a ghoul.
And so a ghoul in vampire loreis a person that becomes like a
slave to a vampire, and so he'she's like, you know, the the
typical lore is like you get bitand then you drink the blood
(21:10):
and then you become a vampire,right?
So he's in this state of wherehe hasn't fully become been able
to become a vampire, and so hebecomes a slave of the vampire,
so he's his servant, and so hecan walk around during the day
and help him with other things,and so he's probably like
(21:30):
hundreds of years old as well.
Okay, and so the reason why helike blew up the way he did when
he died was because he was aghoul and he had you know he was
still part.
That's why it wasn't until theystabbed him, staked him that he
fully died.
Man, okay, I didn't evenrealize yeah, it's just the
(21:52):
horror like you know kind ofgenre thing that uh you know
he's that's what he was becauseI always thought he was like a
zombie or or something, right?
Dylan (22:02):
You know, and so yeah, that's that was yeah, and then
going back to like evil ed'stransformation.
I I have to say I didn't quitefollow along with everything
there.
Okay, because in my I guess inmy mind, I was like, he was
(22:23):
bitten by vampire, and then heis vampire, goes after the
others.
Peter Vincent, yeah.
Yep, yep, goes after PeterVincent, and then not until
Peter Vincent goes to theBrewster's house to try to get
Charlie's mom and phone linescut, so goes upstairs to try to
(22:47):
wake her up, and then uh evil Edis the one in the bed, kinda
kind of a scare there, right?
And Peter runs out of the roomand then a like just full-blown
wolf comes out.
Yeah.
Not even like wolf man, justfull-blown wolf.
Joe (23:08):
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Dylan (23:09):
And then charges Peter, gets staked.
Joe (23:13):
Yeah.
Dylan (23:14):
And then which also like getting staked with the table
leg, yeah, that was pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I was like, okay, how'she how's he gonna pull this
off?
How's this gonna happen?
Yeah, and then with the tableleg, I was like, that was good.
That was good.
Joe (23:31):
Yeah.
What I liked about that, andI'll I'll go back to to the wolf
thing.
What I liked about his Peter'scharacter was that there was
this like growth of him actuallybecoming Peter Vincent of like
even better than Peter Vincentof the movies.
Right.
You know, like he he even tellshimself at one point, I am
(23:52):
Peter Vincent, you know, vampirekiller.
Dylan (23:55):
Yeah, because he really goes through several
transformations himself in themovies.
Yeah.
Of starts off as non-believer,and then we find out that he
needs money, and you know, so hehe does it for her money, yeah.
And then finds out that he'sactually a vampire, like not
(24:16):
just you know, drinking fakeholy water, tap water, right,
and then finding out that he's areal vampire, yeah, and then
just having kind of the spiraldownwards from there of like,
oh, I need to go, I need tohide, like, I just need to leave
this alone, I need to get outof here, yeah.
(24:37):
And then being, you know, themgoing to him and pleading to him
for help because in their eyes,you know, he's the real deal.
Joe (24:46):
Yeah, yeah, he's the real deal to them, whether he says it
or not.
Right.
He's built up this thing foryears, and and and inside he's
like, I'm not this person.
I I you know I can't evenafford to pay my bills right
now.
And right, I just got fired andyou know, they canceled my show
and and all this stuff, and andthen and then like a real
vampire thing happens.
(25:06):
He's like, How am I gonna dothis?
How am I gonna pull this up?
Dylan (25:09):
Right, yeah, and it's cool too, because they even
portray that in the movie whenhe doesn't have faith in the
cross, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So yeah, so yeah, it it justgoes to show the kind of the uh
what is it called?
Like the the care the characterarc.
Yeah, yeah.
(25:29):
I did it, yeah.
Joe (25:33):
Yeah, and so you know, at that point, he's just he's just
ready to roll, he's ready torock and roll, and he's done a
lot of stuff by then.
So when he meets evil ed, whathappens with evil ed is that
vampires can shape shift, andfor some reason Ed chooses this
wolf body as a shape shift, andso and that's how he chooses to
(25:57):
attack him.
Dylan (25:58):
Oh, okay.
Yeah, okay.
Joe (26:00):
So it's yeah, there's there's like they throw so much
vampire lore that like you know,I I didn't understand that too
for for a while, and and justwas like, wait, he's a wolf,
like I don't know why, right,you know, right.
Dylan (26:16):
We switched because like like for me watching it, I was
sitting there thinking, I waslike, are are we switching from
from vampire into into werewolfnow?
Like I thought that was adifferent species, right?
Exactly.
Yeah.
But that's a different movieentirely, yeah.
Joe (26:38):
Did we switch channels or something?
Right.
Why is he?
But uh yeah, it it was uh justa shape shift, and that's what
he chose.
And I you know, that the waythey wrote that, I you know,
just watching it, you know, it'sso emotional, you know, because
you can see it in Peter Vince'seyes, like I just killed a kid.
(27:02):
Right, you know, like insidehe's like, I just killed this
kid, and he's watching him likedie.
And or did he?
But but he's just watching himgo and and he's just like he
wants like he's reaching out tohim and he pulls back because
he's like, I you know, I don'tknow if this is fake.
I don't know, yeah, you know,so it's just yeah, it's a pretty
(27:25):
emotional scene.
And the and then the way theyuh you know do some cuts, but
they they they kind of do thislike it's not seamless, but they
they do a really good job of oftransit you know transforming
him, you know, back into uhhuman form from a wolf to you
know and it's just like and andit's it's cool because they
(27:47):
didn't show that initially, butthey showed it at the end
because it seems like he'sstruggling because he wants to
keep the form of losing it,yeah.
And so it yeah, it's just uhreally cool scene.
I was like, this is prettyemotional, man.
What the heck?
What are you doing?
Tom Holland does it again,right?
Voice Over (28:15):
Are you tired of dates ending with bite marks and
emotional trauma?
Dylan (28:19):
Jerry's Fang Club.
Voice Over (28:27):
Then join Jerry's Fang Club, the only neighborhood
association that meets aftersunset.
We'll show you how to hostdinner parties without
accidentally eating the guests.
Pick up a cape that really popsand master the art of the
subtle hits.
Jerry's Fang Club, where everymember gets a real taste of the
(28:51):
community.
Dylan (28:51):
Join the Fang Club, it's all that club.
Joe (28:59):
Jerry's Fang Club will have you by um yeah, it's it's very
dark, it's very um yeah, smokyeighties.
(29:20):
I think mostly because youcould smoke anywhere in the 80s.
Now it's definitely got an LAvibe.
Uh yeah, yeah, because itthat's where it's supposed to
be.
Gotcha.
Or it's pretty much set andwas, you know, uh, you know,
filmed in LA and I think it wasUniversal or Paramount Backlot.
(29:41):
You can kind of see, you know,that you know the neighborhood
and things like that.
And yeah um, you know, thedowntown LA area.
Um there's a little point wherethey're going to that club, and
it actually reminds me of thecorner, a corner in Butte.
That metals is on.
(30:02):
There's a there's a placecalled metals in Butte, and
there's this little corner whereit goes down.
It starts to go like downhill.
Yeah.
Uh because Butte is just a bunchof hills and stuff like that.
Right.
Yeah.
And it was like, I was like,oh, that that totally looks like
that corner, but it's in LA,you know.
But you know, it could bepretty much anywhere set
(30:22):
anywhere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dylan (30:25):
Um and that's that's one of those things too, is that
they don't purposefully pick aplace to name so that it can
more feel like oh, it maybe it'syou know, maybe it's your
neighbor.
Joe (30:40):
Yeah, exactly.
Dylan (30:42):
The music in it too was really good.
Joe (30:45):
Yeah, very synthy, very, you know, of the 80s.
Dylan (30:49):
Right, definitely of its time.
Joe (30:51):
Yeah, of its time.
I I like it though.
I think I think it's come backaround.
Yeah.
The only thing, you know, Idon't know if I said it already,
but the only thing that I foundcheesy was the actual
soundtrack uh like uh the songfor Fright Night.
Oh yeah.
Yeah, it it's like I just foundlike like I it's almost like
(31:14):
they were going for a like upGhostbusters vibe, but it's just
did not hit the mark, you know.
Dylan (31:19):
Yeah, yeah, they were trying to kind of take over the
the airwaves again, right?
Joe (31:27):
Yeah, trying to get the video, music video out, and
yeah, you know, all that coolstuff.
Dylan (31:32):
And 'cause Ghostbusters was 84 and then this is 85, so
it's the next year.
Yeah.
And so they're like they'reseeing how much of a big hit
that the Ghostbusters theme songwas, right?
And they're probably thinkingto themselves, they're probably
thinking, ooh, let's recreatethat.
(31:53):
Yeah.
That you know, people playingthat pretty much free
advertising.
Joe (31:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's um the band thatdid it is called the Jay Giles
Band, and they have a reallygood song out there called Angel
in the Center Fold.
And I'm not gonna go into thatsong, but uh they really uh
they're a really good band.
And so it's really, really hardto be like, oh man, that that
song, you know, it was writtenby somebody else, so it was
(32:20):
like, yeah, um, but you know,it's just hard because it's like
this is not this it I justdidn't feel like it fit them,
you know, as a band.
Dylan (32:30):
And then with Tom Holland's d directing, um, he
definitely did such a a goodclever blend of the the the
classic horror and then mixingin the actual suspenseful parts
of it.
Joe (32:49):
Yeah, I think he threw in um a lot of Easter eggs if
you're a fan, and new stuff ifyou're not, and you know, just
yeah, great, great uh effectsand things.
Dylan (33:01):
Yeah, it definitely seems to me to be I even thought it
like while watching, I was like,I wonder how much of this
stuff, like in the the vampire'shouse that is taken from like
older movies.
Uh-huh.
And it's kind of one of those,if you know, you know.
(33:22):
Right.
But if not, you're just like,oh yeah, he's he's a collector.
He liked a long time.
Yeah.
Joe (33:28):
Yeah, there's definitely uh stuff in Peter Vincent's uh
house, and you can see like umthere is a Peter Cushing movie
that's playing, and then there'slike a Peter Cushing like um
posters, yeah, and all thehorror stuff.
And I guess uh I read thatthere is actually a face like um
(33:50):
kind of a mold of his own facein in the house.
Dylan (33:54):
Oh, is that that one was in the uh yeah, it's the white
one, right?
Yeah, that's in the apartment.
Joe (34:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you can kind of see it.
It it shows it really well atone point.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah.
Dylan (34:07):
So yeah, I even thought in the moment, I'm like, I bet
that's something.
Yeah, I don't know what it is.
Right.
You know, to me, it's just amask.
Yeah.
So, but I'm like, I'm surethat's from something.
Joe (34:17):
Yeah.
And Jared Dandridge, the funnything is is that he has this
corner.
So when you walk in the house,it's on the left side uh of just
clocks.
And they show them later, butit's like, especially uh after
the battle and everything andtime has come, and it's like,
but you really see all thoseclocks, it's like, whoa, like,
(34:38):
you know, he's got clocks fromall kinds of different places
and styles and and all that kindof stuff.
Dylan (34:46):
Yeah, definitely like for some of some of my favorite
scenes.
I thought when Charlie wasspying out the window and sees
Jerry grow the fangs for thefirst time, uh-huh.
Like that that was a good shot.
Joe (35:07):
Yeah.
Dylan (35:07):
Because you're it's one of those you're expecting it,
but then the way it was done waswell done, where you're like, I
didn't fully anticipate this.
Joe (35:18):
Right.
Yeah, and and it's funnybecause at that point the the
woman that he's with doesn'tseem bothered by anything and
doesn't seem yeah, you know, butthen you find out later that
she's in a trance, and you know,not her particularly, but
that's what he does is he putsthem in a trance, yeah, and so
(35:39):
they just are totally willinglygoing along with whatever he
wants.
Yeah, you know, so he's justlike you know, Charlie's just
blown away, like what what'sgoing on?
You know, right.
Dylan (35:51):
You saying that just rolls right into the nightclub
scene later on where Jerry'spretty much you know, trying to
seduce Amy, Amy, yeah, like you.
Joe (36:06):
Yeah, and and uh and he does, and and she's totally
down, and it's like see.
Dylan (36:13):
I mean, she it's so good the way she portrayed that
because you you just felt likeshe was totally wrapped in right
in whatever he was doing.
Joe (36:22):
Yeah, she's like Charlie Who, you know.
Right.
I do like the nod to to himbeing a vampire and her
realizing it even though evenwhile she's in the trance.
Dylan (36:33):
Her trying to fight it and like it's clicking into
place, but yeah, can she dosomething about it?
Joe (36:40):
Yeah, and she's you know, it's just that whole mirror shot
of him disappearing and youknow, like and her looking back
and forth.
Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.
Dylan (36:50):
Yeah.
Joe (36:52):
Um, you know, evil ed's transformation um of when he
becomes a vampire, I I thinkthere's a lot there because you
know, he was a kid who waspicked on.
I think they were both kind ofpicked on, and they they became
friends because they were pickedon, but they would pick on each
other, right?
You know, and so like you justget that feeling of being a kid
(37:16):
who's picked on, and you don'thave very many friends, and this
person comes to you and says,You can have all this power,
right?
You know, I'm offering you away out of it, yeah, and and you
can come with me, and he'slike, Okay, yeah, like I you
know, it it's it's sad, but ityou know yeah, I mean it's
(37:36):
definitely plays into Jerry'smanipulation, right?
Dylan (37:41):
And like, you know, I think if Ed fully realized what
was going to happen, he probablywouldn't have.
Joe (37:50):
Yeah, yeah.
And I I think that's whereCharlie's like a different, you
know, different has differentcharacter as a as a person, and
and it's just like can see pastthat.
It's like no, I am not gonna,you know, because when they're
in the bedroom and he's like,I'm gonna give you the chance
that I wasn't given, you know.
Right.
(38:10):
And and he does kind of saylike he's gonna let him go if he
just leaves it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dylan (38:16):
Cause he he says, You forget about me, I'll forget
about you.
Joe (38:20):
Yeah, yeah.
Dylan (38:21):
And uh he did not forget or forgive.
Yeah, yeah, there was noforgiveness.
Yeah, I definitely really likedthe scene where Peter Vincent
realizes that oh crap, yeah,it's real.
Joe (38:42):
Yeah.
Because he is totally down forlike, let's go.
And he's like, Yeah, he drankthe water, you know, and and it
was all an act at that point.
Right.
And then he just like looks inthe mirror and he's like, What?
Yep.
Dylan (38:57):
And so like I like to think that you, you know,
something was probably naggingat him of something is not right
with this, with this man.
I'm gonna check the mirror realquick.
Joe (39:12):
Yeah.
Dylan (39:13):
Because it's just a little pocket mirror, right?
It's not like it was a a greatbig mirror that was up on the
wall or something.
Joe (39:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And yeah, it's just he stillthat has that inner Peter
Vincent that that just can't letit go.
Yeah.
Right.
And I think that's why he wasfighting it when when he's
trying to take off, becauselike, no, I don't want to do
this, I don't want to be thisperson.
Like, I don't want to fight, Idon't wanna, you know, it's just
(39:44):
I'm out of here, you know.
Dylan (39:46):
So with the with the finale scene too, I totally
missed that they were windows atfirst until they started
smashing them open and you couldsee the light beams.
Joe (39:58):
Yeah.
Dylan (39:58):
Cause I don't know if it was from where I was sitting or
what, but to me, I was like, whyis all of a sudden the wall has
a hole in it and there's nowlight coming through when
they're in the basement?
Joe (40:11):
Yeah, uh-huh.
Dylan (40:12):
So so yeah, it it took it definitely took me a second to
realize that there was likesupposed to be windows, yeah,
yeah.
Joe (40:19):
And I'm sure that um Billy blacked them out and got that
place ready.
Right.
You know, that was part of theprocess, right?
Like they were probably like,uh, you know, future reference,
we should probably just board upthe windows.
Right.
Right.
Dylan (40:38):
I think maybe to me, I think that they should have made
them a little more obvious,framed for windows.
Yeah.
I I don't know.
I would ask you if you feellike it's recognizable or not,
but you've also seen it so manytimes.
Joe (40:55):
No, I don't think it's obvious.
I think it I don't know, maybethey're doing it that way or
they wanted to do it that wayjust so that you know, um, yeah,
it wouldn't be so obvious.
Uh yeah.
Dylan (41:07):
But because they could maybe even frame it, you know,
if we were kind of recreatingthat the the finale fight scene.
Yeah.
You know, if they framed it assomething accidentally breaks a
window, and they're like, oh,there's windows down here, yeah.
And then they have to kind ofgo down the wall trying to find
(41:29):
windows.
I feel like that might be setup a little better than just oh,
I don't know that there's youknow the I've never been down in
this basement before, yeah.
But I felt like they knew rightwhere to go for the windows.
Joe (41:45):
Yeah, I would have thought Charlie would have known because
he lived next door and he wouldhave known the perimeter of the
house.
Dylan (41:52):
Oh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
So touching back on uh what didyou call it?
Comp composting?
Compositing.
Joe (42:01):
Yeah, excuse me.
Compositing.
Composting is what they weredoing with the bodies.
Right.
One's brand food, one's billmetadata.
Yeah.
Dylan (42:13):
So so for that, you said that they took three three
different shots for the sameone.
So do they just layer ittogether then?
Joe (42:25):
Yeah, so they had like a Billy on his own in a blues with
a blue screen, and then heacted out the part.
Okay.
And then they had so here's thecool thing, and I looked into
um so the effects artist haddone multiple movies.
He worked on Ghostbusters, heworked on um let's see, I have a
(42:47):
whole list here.
He worked on uh so it's SteveJohnson FX.
He worked on pre-production forthe Tim Burton Superman, which
is like Nick Cage was supposedto be Superman, and he it ended
up not happening, but you know,they kind of got like studios
will will get effects houses andsay, We're doing this movie,
(43:09):
give us your best, and everybodyputs in for a bid.
It's just like contracting, youknow.
Oh, okay.
So he did pre-production forthat, for the Hulk, for
Fantastic Four, for GhostGhostwriter.
Um, he worked on Fright Knight,Ghostbusters, Spider-Man 2,
Predator, so like the originalArnold Schwarzenegger Predator.
Um so a lot of the stuff thathe did was was practic try to do
(43:33):
practical effects as much as hecould.
Um and so in that shot, on theon one hand, um he wanted to do
so that on Billy for the mainpart, it was a Indiana Jones
inspiration, and so he theywanted him to melt, and so they
did like a sh, you know, slowmelting effect.
For example, if they took thethe imprint of the if they took
(43:56):
the left hand and they took theback of the right hand and made
that a glove, then the left handwould push the fingers forward
and it would look like the handis melting backwards or towards
the camera.
And so they they're squeezing,you know, their their hand
forward, but it looks like thehand is going backward.
Dylan (44:17):
And so oh yeah, yeah.
Joe (44:19):
So like things like that.
Um, one of my favorite things,um, you know, we talked about
the scene where he um Jerrycomes and um goes to the house
because he's already invited,and mom invites him in.
Yeah, have a little drink.
Yeah, that that scene too isjust I mean, you kind of think
(44:39):
of things as you as you gothrough, but like, you know, you
see his hand on the chair, andthen but so when he goes up to
the room and they're fightingand and you know that that
initial um I think I think whenCharlie drew the line in the
sand was when he stabbed him inthe hand.
And so what they did with thatwas um they took a they took a
(45:07):
pencil that retracted in, and sowhen he stabbed it, it
retracted.
Yeah.
Right?
So, but then on the other side,they had they already had uh a
uh prosthetic of a pencil thatretracted out, and so as you
turn your palm up, it's alreadythere, but it looks like it just
(45:30):
got stabbed through.
So then when you pull thepencil out, it looks like it's
coming out of the hand, and thethe one underneath gets pulled
fast so that you don't seeright, so it's this one
continuous shot of this pencilgoing in and coming out the
other side, yeah.
Um, and so like just thingslike that where you know it
(45:52):
takes time and and money to makethings better, and like that
shot to some people might not beas significant, but it's so
cool and looks so cool, and likeyou know, it just had such an
effect in it.
Like um, the these effects inthis movie were just I mean,
just yeah, out of the park, youknow.
Dylan (46:12):
So I loved the idea of using a pencil as the you know,
the the the to show the woodenstake, right?
Joe (46:22):
You know, it's like a great start, yeah.
And the great thing about ittoo was like there's a genuine
like um Jerry had a genuinereaction of like, oh, you're
declaring war, like you know,right, it's go time, like yeah,
and he was genuinely hurt by it,like like he was like
(46:44):
physically in pain and it waslike he was reeling back from
it, yeah, yeah.
And I I like how um in thatwhole thing with the cross and
all that kind of stuff, like youyou could see Charlie had the
faith, you know, like CharlieCharlie was was was a believer
yeah.
Dylan (47:04):
Going back real quick to the retractable pencil, too.
Um I could I saw that it was aretractable pencil.
Okay.
Um I picked up on that, and Ithink that's partially to the
horror makeup show at UniversalOrband.
Oh yeah, because they have asuper similar one with a knife,
(47:27):
yeah, yeah.
And and show what is it?
They're cut, you know, cuttingthrough a person's arm.
Uh-huh.
And so then they have the bloodwith it.
Yeah.
Joe (47:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that show, that makeupshow.
That that's the thing aboutlike even with this movie that
that makes me love that too, youknow, because it's such a
tribute to to all those monstersand early horror.
Dylan (47:52):
Yeah, but I definitely I definitely enjoyed the movie
more because it did have all ofthose practical effects with it.
And it wasn't just slap on someCGI and call it call it done.
Joe (48:06):
Right, right.
And there was so much that, youknow, with the like with the
compositing, that's the thebasically as far as you could go
in the in that time, you know,is just compositing and yeah,
putting together frames and andscenes or whatever to make that
happen.
But yeah, yeah, ultimately itwas like, yeah, you had to
(48:26):
figure out, okay, we gotta gofrom point A to B.
How are we gonna do this?
Or how did somebody else do it?
And how can I do a littletribute to that, you know?
Dylan (48:35):
Yeah.
And then what was up with allof like the apples and stuff
throughout the movie?
Because when he was first inthe backyard and you could hear
him crunching, yeah.
I I I don't know, I thoughtthat it was gonna be like a body
part.
Joe (48:52):
Oh, that he was crunching on a body part, yeah.
You see what I mean?
Yeah, I do, I do.
So like I guess ChrisSarandon's idea was that um that
he would be part fruit bat.
And so when any when a fruitbat um you know has kills its
prey, it will eat fruit tocleanse its palate.
(49:16):
Oh and so the idea is wheneveryou see him eating fruit, he had
just oh yeah, he had just it'soff somebody.
Yeah.
So oh, that's great.
Yeah, it's like it's almostlike you wish you knew that
ahead of time or something,because like it's just like he's
just really on a really healthydiet.
(49:37):
Right.
Dylan (49:38):
Congratulations, like it must be nice.
So I know when we were talkingabout doing this episode, you
had specifically said the 85version, so they they did a
remake of it.
Joe (49:56):
Yeah, uh they did it with Colum Farrell.
Um, and I haven't seen it.
It didn't look really thatgreat to me.
Yeah.
Um, like it's set in Vegas,it's modern, there's a modern
take on it, and you know, Icould see nightlife, Vegas, all
that kind of thing maybe playingout, but I just I just haven't
(50:20):
seen it.
I haven't haven't tried towatch it.
I mean, Colin Farrell's prettygood in some m movies, but it
just didn't appeal to me.
Dylan (50:28):
Something else I noticed throughout um I felt like there
was lots of like differentinconsistencies throughout the
movie.
So like I'll give you someexamples and you can tell me why
I'm wrong.
Okay.
But so when when evil Ed turnedinto a vampire, it was right
(50:50):
away.
Yeah or we're kind of led toyou know believe that a little
more because he pretty muchyeah, he turns around right away
and pretty much goes to toPeter Vincent's and yeah, got
let got invited in, right?
Which is really good.
Yeah.
But then on the flip side ofthat, Amy turns slowly, uh-huh.
(51:13):
And he's like, Well, you haveuntil just before dawn to you
know save her.
Joe (51:20):
Yeah.
Dylan (51:21):
And then also on the same hand, Amy knew right away to be
weary of the holy symbol, yeah.
You know, that it was was bad,right, you know, for her.
Joe (51:36):
Uh-huh.
Dylan (51:37):
And then it seemed like Ed did not.
Which I know that one is alittle more of Ed is going to
bite Peter, and then Peter, youknow, quick thinking gets the
cross out.
Gets the cross out, but I feellike with where it was, like Ed
(51:57):
kind of saw it coming a littlemore.
Joe (52:00):
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know.
I feel like once he got thecrossout, he knew.
Yeah.
And and then that's why itburned the heck out of him,
because it was like Yeah.
Dylan (52:11):
Yeah.
I mean, that one can beexplained away a little easier
than the whole timeline thing.
Yeah.
Which I get, you know, we gottawe gotta do plot here.
Yeah.
But you know, yeah, I justthought that that was kind of a
for me, that was a biginconsistency.
That like if I manage toconsider that while watching the
movie, yeah, like I feel likethat's kind of a big hole.
Joe (52:34):
Yeah.
Dylan (52:35):
Also, why did Amy's hair grow longer and change color?
Joe (52:41):
Yeah.
I mean, even in even in it.
Even in well, even in thedancing scene, her hair changes.
Dylan (52:48):
Does it?
Joe (52:48):
It does.
Dylan (52:50):
Hole.
Joe (52:50):
Yeah.
I think it was just part of hischarisma.
Like it was just like trying toshow like the um how much
influence he would have.
Dylan (53:01):
Yeah.
I get, you know, to kind ofform her in his in his will or
whatever, or to his will.
Joe (53:08):
Yeah.
Dylan (53:09):
But also like the ending was so good.
Like the actual ending wherewhere it's Ed, or we know it's
Ed, uh-huh, looking from thedarkened window.
Yeah.
Voice Over (53:22):
That was so good.
Dylan (53:24):
Yeah.
I know.
Joe (53:25):
I I don't I think you missed it, but initially there
was you seen real quick thesered eyes.
Yeah.
And then that's why uh Charliewas looking, started to look
over.
Oh, okay.
And then he's like, What theheck?
You know, and then Right.
I think I see some.
Yeah.
And then and then he he doesshow himself.
And man, I was ready for asequel, you know.
Dylan (53:48):
Yeah, it's set, I mean, it sets it up like pretty pretty
perfectly.
Joe (53:53):
Yeah, and it took a while.
I think the next one came outin 88, but there's actually what
confused me, I was, you know,so if the second one came out in
88, um the uh I would have beeneight or nine.
So there was a movie in betweencalled 976 Evil, and it was
with the same actor.
So it it I thought it was asequel because it was called 976
(54:16):
Evil, and but I hadn't seen it,so I didn't know, and uh come
to find out it wasn't a sequelat all.
But that could have been hecould have had his own sequel,
yeah, you know, like uh evil edsequel, and you know, maybe he's
trying to build up vampires oryou know, like it could have
been, but yeah, we'll neverknow.
Dylan (54:38):
Is it when a vampire bites somebody and turns them
into a vampire that they are nowkind of subservient to?
Kind of their the original one?
Joe (54:50):
Yeah, pretty much.
Okay, and so you have like amaster, and you know, and the
the second one, uh, I guess it'sa sister that comes after
Charlie.
Oh so yeah.
Dylan (55:04):
We're gonna have to add that one to the watch list.
Right.
All right.
Well, how many wooden stakesout of ten would you rate this?
Joe (55:16):
Oh I'm gonna pull a Dave.
I'll probably give it eight.
Dylan (55:23):
Solid eight.
Um coming in.
Eight stakes.
Number eight.
Number eight.
Joe (55:30):
Um Right Night.
Dylan (55:33):
Yeah, I would I would probably have said seven or
eight.
Yeah.
So I I yeah, yeah, I I totallyagree with that.
Nice.
Um kind of like we said at thetop of the episode, like not as
not as cheesy as I thought itwas gonna be.
Yeah.
Like truly got into it and andenjoyed it.
Joe (55:53):
Yeah, yeah.
It it pulls you in and and youknow, all the buildup of all the
characters of you know, itdoesn't take too long to build
all that up because even PeterVincent's introduced right away.
All three of them areintroduced right away.
Yeah, it's just you know, youjust find out that Peter Vincent
isn't who you think he is atfirst, and then he becomes the
(56:16):
Peter Vincent he needs to be.
That we need him to be.
That we need him to be, that wedeserve.
Yep.
Dylan (56:23):
Do you think that it uh that it still holds up as a
Halloween staple?
Joe (56:28):
I think so.
I I really do.
I think there's enough,especially there's enough fans
out there that you know, withwith all the amount of vampire
movies that there are, I thinkit it fits right in with all of
those.
Dylan (56:42):
Um it just yeah, it's it's a pretty yeah, because you
were you were kind of talkingabout how you wish you had more
time for spooky season to fit inmore more spookies.
Joe (56:56):
Yeah, yeah.
There's Lost Boys, um AmericanWerewolf in London, you know,
just just to get you know a fewmore would be great.
Dylan (57:06):
Yeah.
Well, maybe we'll sprinkle themin throughout the first season.
Joe (57:09):
Yeah.
Dylan (57:10):
But yeah, I definitely think it's it definitely does a
great job of balancing your youknow, your camp and and creepy.
Joe (57:19):
Yeah, yeah.
And and yeah, it again, it it'sI feel like it's more comedic
than it is campy.
And they even put that firstclip of Peter Vincent to to be
like they're like, we're notgonna be this.
Right, right.
And so a keynote on that that Ihadn't noticed until it was
(57:39):
pointed out, is in that shotwhen Peter Vincent puts up the
stake, he actually has itbackwards, and so the flat end
is towards the that's funny.
Dylan (57:53):
I did not pick up on that.
Yeah.
But yeah, definitely goes toshow his character is not quite
what he's you know cracked up tobe there.
Yeah, yeah.
Joe (58:04):
But you gotta you gotta give it to Roddy McDonnell.
He's great actor and just youknow, had a great part.
Dylan (58:11):
Yeah, for sure.
Joe (58:14):
So next week we're switching the tables, we're
turning the tables on ourepisodes.
So so far, all of theseepisodes, uh, all of these
movies you haven't seen, Dylan.
So we're actually gonna do amovie that I haven't seen.
That's right.
Focus focus.
Dylan (58:30):
Which how have I seen that and not you?
Joe (58:33):
I don't know.
I do not know.
I know the actresses in it areamazing.
Yeah, it's so good.
Dylan (58:40):
But yeah, that's I and that's not one that I grew up
watching, it's just one that Igot introduced to fairly
recently, a couple years ago,and have watched every year
since.
Joe (58:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Dylan (58:53):
So, but yeah, I'm super excited to to be able to do that
one next week.
So keep an eye out for thatone.
All right.
So thank you guys forlistening.
And if you have any favoritescenes in Fright Knight that we
did not cover, let us know.
Joe (59:08):
If you have any favorite movies that you want us to
cover, let us know as well.
There's likely a chance thatDylan hasn't seen him, and
there's a slim chance that Ihaven't seen a movie or two.
Dylan (59:21):
Check out the socials, all the links to everything are
down in the description.
And that's all for this week.
And remember, keep your windowsclosed.
You never know who might bewatching.
You're so cool, Brewster.
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